Confirmed: Alber Elbaz Exiting Lanvin

Update: Reps have confirmed that Lanvin and Elbaz are parting ways. The house has issued the following statement:

Today the House of LANVIN has ended its collaboration with Alber Elbaz.We would like to thank him for the chapter he has written in the House's over 125 year history.The House of LANVIN confirms the implementation of its corporate strategic plan to continue making the oldest of the Parisian fashion houses, the Ambassador of French luxury's excellence, in the independent spirit of its founder Jeanne Lanvin.

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Original post: Just days after Dior announced that Raf Simons would be leaving his post as the brand's creative director comes news of another big exit:WWD reports that Alber Elbaz is leaving Lanvin. While the fashion house has yet to confirm the designer's departure, WWD reports Lanvin's employees were informed of the news today.

With the news that Elbaz is now a free agent after a 14-year tenure at Lanvin, speculation will inevitably begin that the Israeli designer will fill Simons' vacant spot at Dior.

But the break, which WWD posits stems from disagreements between Elbaz and Lanvin's owner and CEO, comes just after the designer shared his feelings about the fast pace of the fashion industry today:

And we designers, we started as couturiers, with dreams, with intuition, with feeling, we thought, What do women want? What do women need? What can I do for a woman to make her life better and easier? How can I make a woman more beautiful? That is what we used to do. Then we became "creative directors," so have to create, but mostly direct. And now we have to become image-makers, creating a buzz, making sure that it looks good in the pictures. The screen has to scream, baby. That's the rule. And loudness is the new thing. Loudness is the new cool, and not only in fashion, you know....And I'm not against technology; I'm embracing technology. I love newness. I respect smart design. I love smart people. I love most good people; people with heart. I believe that the biggest change in fashion will come because of technology and with technology. But the real evolution — not revolution — will happen when tradition and know-how, and human touch, and beauty, and newness, and technology, will become one.